Dousing homeless at church gets S.F. archdiocese in hot water

A sprinkler is seen at St. Mary's Cathedral, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, in San Francisco, Calif. The Archdiocese of S.F. said the sprinklers are now turned off after allegations of the water system soaking the homeless sleeping in the stairwells. less

A sprinkler is seen at St. Mary's Cathedral, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, in San Francisco, Calif. The Archdiocese of S.F. said the sprinklers are now turned off after allegations of the water system soaking the ... more

A sprinkler is seen at St. Mary's Cathedral, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, in San Francisco, Calif. The Archdiocese of S.F. said the sprinklers are now turned off after allegations of the water system soaking the homeless sleeping in the stairwells. less

A sprinkler is seen at St. Mary's Cathedral, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, in San Francisco, Calif. The Archdiocese of S.F. said the sprinklers are now turned off after allegations of the water system soaking the ... more

First the water rained down, and then the condemnation rained down — and on Wednesday, San Francisco’s embarrassed Roman Catholic Archdiocese said it would tear out sprinklers that have been dousing homeless people sleeping in the doorways of its premier church in the city.

The sprinklers have been regularly dousing people camping overnight in four spacious side doorways of St. Mary’s Cathedral for about two years, leaving soggy piles of blankets, clothing, hypodermic needles and other trash nearly every morning. Preventing that type of mess, soggy or not, was the reason the archdiocese installed the sprinklers, church officials said.

Then came Wednesday. A report by KCBS radio quoting homeless people complaining about the nightly dousings led to the archdiocese being swamped by media requests for explanations — and by 2 p.m. the sprinklers had been torn out. The city Building Department issued a violation order saying the sprinklers had been improperly installed without a permit, but that should be dismissed as soon as the church shows proof of the removal, an agency spokesman said.

The sprinklers were actually just pipe holes high up the alcoves that dumped water every half hour at times in all four doorways, soaking the pavement. On Wednesday night, the wet spots around the holes were still visible, but the few people sleeping below remained dry.

Added controversy

The flap was just the latest to hit the archdiocese, which has been under fire in recent months over an attempt to force schoolteachers at its schools to agree to guidelines rejecting homosexual relations, the use of contraception and other “gravely evil” behavior. And though the immediate issue of the dousings was revolved, the fact remains that the sprinkler removal won’t make the mess go away, church officials admitted — so a plan B will have to be crafted.

Even as the church was swarmed with media and sprinkler workers Wednesday, discarded needles, crack pipes, cigarettes and other trash from campers who used other parts of the cathedral’s grounds remained in the dirt and pathways. A heavy stench of urine still permeated the doorways, and homeless people nearby said they would be happy to return with their sleeping bags once the sprinklers were removed.

“The problem is persistent,” said church spokesman Larry Kamer. “The first priority today was to turn the sprinklers off. But now we’ll have to figure out what to do next.”

The purpose of the sprinklers was not to douse people, he said, but to act as a deterrent and cleanser. “But the trouble was that you have people who wanted to be there even if the sprinklers were on,” Kamer said. “So it didn’t really work as it was intended.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, Bishop William Justice, rector of the cathedral, said the church — which is used as a winter homeless shelter — helps “many thousands” of indigents each year through enterprises such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and it resorted to the sprinklers only “as a safety, security and cleanliness measure.”

Now, however, Justice wrote, “we are sorry that our intentions have been misunderstood and recognize that the method was ill-conceived.”

Homeless campers and advocates applauded the archdiocese’s response, but said they hadn’t been surprised at the sprinklers’ installation.

'Dehumanizing’

“It’s trickle-down economics from the head of a sprinkler,” said Paul Boden, organizing director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, which advocates for homeless people. “These are human beings, man. It reminds me of how people treat dogs if they’re in heat, spraying them with hoses. It’s just symbolic of how dehumanizing we’ve become as a society about homeless people.”

As for the archdiocese’s decision to remove the sprinklers, Boden said: “Good for them.” He suggested the church hire homeless people to clean the mess left by campers. Kamer said all practical ideas will be considered.

“Hosing us down like that was totally wrong, telling us we were not blessed, that we were the devil’s child,” said Steve Johnson, 54, who bunked down in nearby Jefferson Square after being chased out by the sprinklers. “This is not caring from the church.”

Neighbors said they had long been saddened and bothered by campers at the church, but they’d rather see them go to shelters than be doused with water.

Troubling situation

“I feel sorry for them, and they don’t just sleep there but also in the back of my building,” said Art Rosenberg, who lives next to the cathedral. “They leave cigarette butts and trash everywhere, which is very unpleasant, but what to do about it is a difficult question.

“I understand that many of them are people without hope. We should help them.”

Nathaniel Alleger, 32, who said he was drenched by the sprinklers at the church, added that he was angry that his fellow campers leave a mess. He said he might go back to the doorways if they were dry — and he would try to keep them clean this time.

“People can’t stand the homeless anyway, and if we leave a mess all that does is screw things up,” he said. “I keep my places clean. If everyone does that and doesn’t leave a footprint, nobody has a reason to be irritated.”